Proteus to launch biocatalyst technology in US
shuffling technology developed by the France-based company to
generate and optimise novel proteins for commercial product
applications including personal care and cosmetics formulations.
L-Shuffling is an enabling gene shuffling technology and is used as a recombination-based protein engineering technology to accelerate the development of new or improved products and processes.
"For specific cosmetic and personal care applications it means that chemical-based ingredients can be developed using a biocatalyst to reduce the number of steps to process it," said Jean-Marie Sonet, Proteus spokesperson.
"As the process is mild it avoids smells and other undesirable side affects, which means that harsh chemicals such as bleach can be avoided. And because the process is so much simpler it also makes it cheaper," added Sonet.The company has already implemented the technology for one major cosmetic ingredient manufacturer, which allowed it to produce an ingredient with a lower solubility, thus using less solvent.
L-Shuffling's applications include developing therapeutic proteins, industrial biocatalysts and agricultural traits optimization. Proteus says the new patent broadly covers Proteus in vitro gene shuffling recombination methods in a variety of embodiments, and contains multiple claims covering ligation-mediated in vitro recombination methods.
"Getting a desireable protein is what L-Shuffling provides" said Daniel Dupret, president and CEO of Proteus. "The issuance of this new patent reinforces Proteus leadership in this field of biotechnology."
"The US patent will now help us to take this technology into the all-important US market, allowing us to expand beyond our domestic and European base," added Sonet.
Back in January Proteus announced that it had collaborated with Degussa to develop a thermostable esterase biocatalyst to provide new applications for poorly soluble ingredients used in cosmetic applications.
Esterases represent one of the most important classes of industrial biocatalysts due to their ability to catalyse reactions in organic media, making them exceptional useful for cosmetic applications where the controlled reaction of ingredients is of the utmost important in order to avoid timely and expensive errors.
It is claimed that this breakthrough will help to open up novel perspectives in applications involving poorly soluble substrates or products that are used for synthesis of specialty intermediates for cosmetics.
